mtx and weight gain

[vdub]

It seems this has already been discussed, but I searched and didn't find anything....

I'm now tapering off the mtx and I'm gaining weight -- 7 pounds so far. Anyone else experience that when coming off chemo?

[JanW]

Nothing here...but as we discussed before I am tapering much, much more slowly than you are.

[vdub]

I am tapering much, much more slowly than you are

Yes and it will be very interesting to compare notes a couple months from now. When do you theoretically go to zero?

[JanW]

Thanksgiving time. The goal is to get my nose fixed over the Xmas holidays (Merry Xmas to me), and my rheumy wants me still on 2 tabs then (highest the surgeon will accept and still do the surgery). He is going super slow now because, obviously, each pill that is taken away is a larger percentage of the total. I'll be at 4 tabs for a couple of months (have been for six weeks already) and then 3 for a couple of months.

I would go to zero after I'm completely healed from surgery. For what it's worth, I've had no problems reducing at all, but I had no problems on it, really. My speculation is that I went into remission pretty quickly after getting on the drug (and my numbers and clinical presentation bears that out), and just stayed stability. I actually believe that I had long periods of stability prior to diagnosis because it took a long time (five years in total) to be dx and that whole time my windpipe was shrinking in size, but very, very slowly. I was probably flaring and then going quiet over and over. None of it ever bad enough to go to the doctor about (except for the shortness of breath, which was diagnosed as asthma. But yet, I have tissue damage from the disease, so it's not a mild case, either.

[vdub]

each pill that is taken away is a larger percentage of the total

I never looked at it that way.... You are absolutely right, it's not straight line.....

[jola57]

No weight gain but rather slow weight loss since I went down to 7.5 (3 tabs) a week because of liver, that was 3 months ago. However, now I have 120 creatinine and 41 eGFR. So I will be seeing my rheumy in 3 weeks, and hopefully a renal consult earlier than that. I am also getting lesions (one on my forearm, one on my c/section scar, one slightly lower and two on my butt} now two more appeared on my leg. I have had them for over 3 months and corticosteroid cremes don't work. Any ideas on how to get rid of them ?

[Sangye]

Are they Wegs lesions, Jolanta?

[vdub]

I'm getting another blood test in about an hour, but I won't pick up the results until late this aft. Could be interesting.....

Jolanta, when you say lesions, do you mean a small open sore that won't heal?

[oaktreehill]

I stopped taking mtx in June and went from 20mg to nothing in one week. They were hoping to move me onto azathioprine but that has been put back 2 months now so I only take pred now.

When I stopped taking mtx I noticed I suddenly dropped weight without changing my diet at all, if anything I was eating all the wrong things at the time.

[jola57]

yes vdub, small dark open sores, and I am sure they are Wegs related, never had them before. The one on my arm, b.u.tt, and scar are clearing up, but the one left of the c/section scar has been there for over 3 months without clearing up. Its about 1/4".